Dem congressman: Hey, maybe Bush let Osama get away on purpose to justify the Iraq war

posted at 9:02 pm on November 30, 2009 by Allahpundit

No no, just kidding: There’s no “maybe” here. On the contrary, he blithely asserts that “there’s no question about it,” which precipitates the first and likely last defense of George W. Bush ever mounted by David Shuster. But then, this is the same guy who once claimed that Karl Rove planted the phony memos that destroyed Dan Rather’s career, who called for nationalizing America’s oil industry, and who thought it’d be super-keen to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine. Chock full o’ good ideas, he is; it was only a matter of time before he stumbled across this one.

As for the merits of his argument, let me see if I have this straight. Bush deliberately refused to take out Bin Laden at Tora Bora when he had the chance, even though (a) it would have been an enormous boost for him politically, arguably making his goal of invading Iraq even easier to achieve; (b) Bin Laden’s lingering presence in the tribal areas gave Democrats an effective talking point against Iraq for years afterward about “taking our eye off the ball” and “fighting the real war” (which, at the moment, they no longer want to fight); (c) Bush himself repeatedly emphasized, as one of his own core talking points, that the war on terror is much bigger than one archterrorist and can only be won by democratizing and liberalizing the Middle East. Listening to Hinchey here, you’d think it was Osama, not WMD, that Dubya had claimed Saddam was hiding. But whatever. This isn’t a serious argument being made by Hinchey, merely a little reminder ahead of Obama’s speech tomorrow night that Bush is the devil and responsible for every last problem the left has to deal with, etc etc etc. Take it in the dumb, thoughtless spirit in which it’s offered.

Blowback

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Gen. Tommy Franks defends the plan at Tora Bora from Kerry’s second-guessing. Kerry has been confusing hindisght with insight, and second-guessing the military rather than George Bush, as I noted at length here.
The key quotes are in the UPDATE to the old post – Kerry was for the Tora Bora plan before he was against it. Imagine my surprise.

CALLER: Hello. Yes, I would like to ask the panel why they don’t use napalm or flamethrowers on those tunnels and caves up there in Afghanistan?

KING: Senator Kerry?

…

KERRY: Well, I think it depends on where you are tactically. They may well be doing that at some point in time. But for the moment, what we are doing, I think, is having its impact and it is the best way to protect our troops and sort of minimalize the proximity, if you will. I think we have been doing this pretty effectively and we should continue to do it that way.

At the time, Kerry was all for it. He told an interviewer in late 2001 that the United States could avoid making Afghanistan into another Vietnam, “as long as we make smart decisions, and we don’t go in and repeat what the British or the Russians tried to do. And I don’t think we will; I think we’re on a different footing.” In mid-December 2001, right in the middle of the battle of Tora Bora, he supported the administration’s strategy: “I think we have been smart. I think the administration leadership has done it well, and we are right on track.” Kerry only cautioned against using too much force: “I am not for a prolonged bombing campaign,” he said.

So I guess President Clinton and Senator Kerry are in on the big ol’ conspiracy also.

Kerry and his democratic friends are beyond hilarious trying to make this an issue when they are up to their neck in support for the strategy in Afghanistan during Tora Bora and had many chances to take out Osama themselves only to shrink away like little cowards because they did not want to get their hands dirty.

2000 the USS Cole is attacked, too late for Clinton to use as an excuse to go after Saddam. I’m sure Clinton wanted the attack on the USS The Sullivans (DDG-68) successful.

Bush takes office, 911 happens, finally we go after OBL in Afghanistan. Just as we are about to capture OBL, Clinton reminds Bush the REAL goal is regime change in Iraq.

Bush lets OBL go and the rest is history!

Brilliant!

Guess politicians CAN walk and chew gum at the same time!

Sar/off

“In fact, one thing that I have noticed . . . is that all of these conspiracy theories depend on the perpetrators being endlessly clever. I think you’ll find the facts also work if you assume everyone is endlessly stupid.”

A “new” congressional report spearheaded by John Kerry is immediately used as a springboard for other congressional Democrats (who are really only mad about the litigation opportunities their trial lawyer constituents have missed out on in the interim) to accuse George W. Bush of intentionally letting Osama get away?

Treasonous acts are carried out in the open by Democratic members of the Senate and Congress on a regular basis. The aid the late Senator Kennedy offered to our Russian enemy during the cold war to counter the work done by Reagan sprngs to mind. He undertakes this traitorous act and no mention of it is made.
It is no wonder that those on the left imagine treasonous acts on the part of Conservatives. They assume that all are engaged in the same slimy acts that they are.

Of course…I get the impression that this guy is just a whack job. It must be fun to say such insane things and watch people record it, write it down and later quote it as if it meant something.

If Bush was to blame for the Tora Bora supposed failure, then Clinton should be even more to blame for his failure to give the “shoot” order when the snipers had him in their sights during his day of golf. If he had ordered “shoot” instead of “fore”, we probably wouldn’t have had 9-11!

Seems to me President Bubba Clinton had a clear shot at OBL and blinked. Ergo.. there goes the twin towers.

donabernathy on December 1, 2009 at 7:12 AM

Thanks for the reminder.
I lack the proper words to describe my feelings for the ObamaDemocrats right now. Why any Republican would want to work with these individuals, perps really, is beyond me. Yeah, they are all perps. Democrat perps every stinking one of them.
What do perps always say? “I didn’t do it. That other guy did it! I don’t know nothing bout that money in the freezer! I don’t know nothin bout those taxes not being paid! I don’t know nothin bout how the economy got that way! I don’t know nothin ceptI know Bush done did it!”
They break into our homes every day, steal our money, our kids, our property and now they want to seize our lives and call it health care! They ought to be arrested and thrown in jail for theft of liberty!
Freakin Perps!

OBAMA’S PROVIDING MORE FREEDOM FOR BIN LADEN, AL QAEDA AND THE TALIBAN, by not taking any action on troop fortifications, and threatening the intelligence organizations responsible for military intel.
OBAMA’S RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY PRESENT TERRORISM AND ENEMY VICTORIES.

Mr. Hinchey should go to ToraBora and take a look around before running his mouth off. This is not like the Won having a guy in his neighborhood that he never saw. While this guy thinks he’s running down Bush again, he’s also trashing our troops.

If calling President Obama a liar for actually lying is grounds for being censured, do you think Pelosi will censor this Representative for claiming that Bush let Osama Bin Laden go so that he could go to war? Maybe it is just me, but the latter slanderous statement seems a lot worse than the former accurate statement.

America is harmed in a deep way when idiots such as Hinchey, who in all seriousness proffer such whacked-out leftist wet-dream fantasies as if they are legitimate argumentative discourse, are actually in a position to make this nation’s laws.

I actually watched this and Shuster took him to task….now not because he had a problem with blaming Bush he just thought this guy saying it made Progressives look bad. At Least Shuster challenged him whatever his motivation.

How about all of the democrats
Giving away classified information to the new york times
Helping and aiding the islamic terrorists..
Giving 4 islamic mass murders a 10 million dollar vacation in bermuda..
Meeting with the communists – while a member of congress
(kenedy anywone) ?